


For a Perfect World

by Glaucus



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:47:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25025641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glaucus/pseuds/Glaucus
Summary: Edelgard's march to a better Fódlan is unending, all-encompassing, until it isn't. Facing against her former Professor, she knows she cannot hope to win. She accepts her fate, allows the world to fall away, and... is this the afterlife?
Comments: 12
Kudos: 21





	For a Perfect World

Five years had passed, and Edelgard still marched on, strong as ever. Derdriu was captured, and their former friends—Claude included—were dead. Both Seteth and Flayn were killed next, and Arianrhod was utterly destroyed soon after. Fhirdiad was a gruesome scene: soldiers turned into demonic beasts, Rhea—no, Seiros—enraged, Dimitri slain by Edelgard’s hand. 

Their pursuit continued. 

It was their greatest battle, that which would end the war, that Edelgard so hated to recall. They had no time to recover but still marched on. Fhirdiad went up in flames, and seemingly endless screams rang out as they now faced The Immaculate One. 

Edelgard stood strong, and yet, when faced with the sight before, she knew it was over.

“Professor…” Her grip on her axe tightened. “Facing you… I grow weak…”

Byleth was unmoved, walking slowly towards her. A flash of pain appeared on Edelgard’s face as she looked down to the bloodied earth.

“I wanted… to walk with you…”

The sounds of the battlefield were deafening. Byleth held up the Sword of the Creator, and—

The blade struck true.

—————

Edelgard opened her eyes, blinking at the bright white light around her. She pushed herself off the ground, slowly. All she could see was white. Looking at her open palms, still gloved but no longer bloodstained, she let out a soft, defeated sigh.

“So this is the afterlife,” Edelgard whispered, wincing at the way it seemed to echo. “I suppose I was condemned to nothingness.”

She looked upwards, again disappointed by the monotony of it all.

“I’ll go mad here,” she said, hands clenched into fists.

A bitter, too-familiar laugh sounded from behind her. She tensed.

“No kidding.”

Edelgard quickly turned around, eyes wide. That voice was surely—

Claude gave her a wry grin, not bothering to hide his resentment. Edelgard didn’t blame him. On the floor not too far from him was a dark mass, and it was… moving. No… It couldn’t—? Edelgard stepped backwards involuntarily. There Dimitri now stood, glaring at her with one eye that seemed to hold the power of a million. 

This was worse than she thought.

“You’re both… here?”

Dimitri walked towards her. “Yes. Because of _you_.”

“I—Well. I apologize.”

A derisive snort. 

Edelgard held her head up higher, suppressing the urge to run. “Fódlan needed to be freed from the evils of the Church! Both of you were in the way of that.”

Edelgard quickly scanned the area. Nothing had changed from before, unfortunately. They were in the clothes they had worn when they died, but had none of the weapons. It was lucky, she supposed, until she recalled all the times Dimitri had broken something in their youth. Even without weapons, she was in mortal danger.

“Well, that’s not entirely true.” Claude began. Edelgard felt herself wince as she anticipated what he was about to say. “You didn’t have to kill me, for one. I was already planning to leave Fódlan!”

“S-Still,” Edelgard tried weakly, backing up further, “I couldn’t be sure…”

“El.”

She shivered.

“I will _tear_ you apart, _limb_ by—”

The white around them suddenly became too much, engulfing what little was there before, until they could see and hear nothing at all.

—————

The scene before her… was so _familiar_. It felt nostalgic somehow.

“Please forgive our intrusion.”

Was that… Dimitri? But he sounded so young! No, that couldn’t be possible; this was the oldest she knew him. This wasn’t too abnormal… right?

“We wouldn’t bother you were the situation not dire.”

There were in a village, but Edelgard couldn’t remember its name. Nor could she remember why she was now standing before two strangers—no, she knew these people. And yet.

“What do a bunch of kids like you want at this hour?”

Kids? Edelgard hasn’t been called a kid in ages; certainly no one would be foolish enough to call the warmonger Emperor a— _what_? She wasn’t an Emperor yet.

“We’re being pursued by a group of bandits. I can only hope that you—”

Edelgard froze, as did the two others beside her. She knew what was going on now, but it couldn’t be true! The three of them looked at each other, eyes wide and unblinking. They were oblivious to the confusion of the two mercenaries in front of them.

Jeralt frowned. “Hm? What’s going on?” He and Byleth exchanged glances. 

Suddenly, once the switch had gone off in their heads, Dimitri became enraged, Claude stepped backwards and reached for his bow, and Edelgard leapt to the side and grabbed her axe. Dimitri brandished his lance dangerously close to Edelgard’s face, heedless of the mercenaries’ alarm.

He laughed, unhinged, just as he did a lifetime ago. “Ready yourself, El! This time, you will not escape my blade!”

Edelgard spared a glance towards Claude, regretting it once she saw the hatred in his eyes. She supposed this was fair. She had killed them both, ruthlessly, not too long ago. It dawned on her then that Claude must have spent the longest amount of time in the void.

Well then. Edelgard couldn’t complain.

Quickly, Edelgard brought her axe up to block Dimitri’s first blow, then moved to the side to dodge one of Claude’s arrows. She readied her axe to hit the shaft of the lance in an attempt to break it, but she was blocked by—a sword?

Then, a chorus of three _thumps_ sounded, and she felt herself fall to the ground, almost grateful for the way the world slipped into black. 

At least, she thought to herself, it wasn’t the void.

—————

She woke up in an inn of some sort, arms and legs bound by ropes. Edelgard thought they might have been captured by the bandits after all, until she realized they hadn’t left the village.

The other two were there as well, tied up in the same fashion, but they were all on opposite sides of the room. Edelgard figured it must have been to keep them from killing each other. They seemed to not be fully awake yet, Edelgard realized, otherwise they would be spitting insults at each other.

Still, Edelgard thought with a slight wince, there was no way Dimitri couldn’t break through these ropes. He would sooner behead than insult her, if given the chance. 

“I see you’re awake.”

Startled, she looked to her right and saw Jeralt standing there, with Byleth sitting on a chair just beside the doorway.

“I think you should start explaining, kid.”

Edelgard sighed. “I did nothing wrong,” she huffed. “I was simply—”

She was interrupted by startled yells and the panic of their captors. A flash of white, and suddenly she couldn’t see anything at all. Squeezing her eyes shut, she waited a few long moments before attempting to speak again. But it was no use. Once she opened her eyes, all she could see was that damning white void again.

—————

It felt like ages before either Dimitri or Claude showed up. Edelgard spent her time angrily pacing and wondering why she died. So soon too! Had she known that she would have been _reincarnated_ , given another chance, she would have been more cautious!

Of course, she thought, it must have been Dimitri that killed her. She was worried that those ropes wouldn’t hold him, and she had a little bit more faith in Claude’s restraint.

Edelgard screamed angrily into the void, relishing in how it echoed. It was the only power she felt she had these days. Then, it seemed that her luck had turned: a defeated groan could be heard—and it wasn’t her own! Edelgard turned around, a part of her hating the way she grew excited at the thought of company, even someone who (probably) killed her.

On the floor were the prone bodies of her mortal enemies. Edelgard marched over to them, crossed her arms over her chest, and pretended that she was the one responsible for their sorry state.

Perhaps the void _was_ truly driving her mad.

Edelgard cleared her throat. “Who killed me?” She said, frowning down at them. 

Her attempt to sound like the menacing Emperor she once was failed, and she cursed the way it came out sounding as if she was only mildly curious.

Claude pushed himself off the floor and pointed at Dimitri. “This genius.”

Dimitri grumbled in response.

Edelgard scoffed. “I figured. What happened next?”

Dimitri looked at her at that, confused. “You’re not as angry as I thought you would be.”

“Well, I’ve had… time.”

Dimitri shook his head. “Right, right.” He moved to sit cross-legged on the floor. “Well, once I regained consciousness, I saw you, and I broke through my bonds.”

Claude made a frustrated noise, muttering something like, “I couldn’t even cut it with a dagger!”

Ignoring him, Edelgard made a motion for him to continue, face impassive.

“I grabbed my lance.” Dimitri stood to act it out, unhelpfully. “I believe that’s when they—Byleth and Jeralt, I mean—noticed me.” He coughed awkwardly, as if he was merely embarrassed by a small mistake and not cold-blooded murder. “So I just—” He motioned the action of throwing a javelin. “—threw it.”

Edelgard’s eye twitched. He didn’t even own a javelin. He threw full sized lances without breaking a sweat. Maybe she was a bit jealous.

“It struck you right in the heart, killing you instantly.” Claude sighed. “We were thrown into the dungeons pretty quick after that stunt.”

“Both of you?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I was apparently an accomplice. Which is not true! I was trying to kill you for _myself_.”

She wished at that moment that their reasons were a bit more unfounded, so that she could feel hurt by the obvious hatred. But, as it was, she completely agreed with that statement.

Nodding, she said, “As expected of you. I assume you were on trial?” 

“Executed,” Dimitri said sadly.

“What did you expect?” Edelgard said, exasperated. 

He should at least have the decency to be aware of the consequences, she thought, offended. She was an important person, usually!

Claude put a hand to his chin. “Do you think we’ll be reincarnated again?”

“Goddess, I hope not—”

The void grew more oppressive.

Edelgard glared at him with all her might, attempting to curse him with the power of a thousand suns, but to her dismay, the void was already plunging them into a terrible, blindingly-white silence.

**Author's Note:**

> Ahahaha, I've been reading/watching too much isekai and reincarnation stuff lately, so this is what my brain came up with.... 
> 
> Hopefully this is bearable? I'll try to edit it later, probably


End file.
